Preview: Bristol Festival of Puppetry

You can forget what you thought you knew about puppets: that’s the message coming loud and clear from the programme of this year’s Bristol Festival of Puppetry.

Returning from September 1-10, this year’s #BFP17 will show audiences that iPads can become hand puppets, that film and animation is a form of puppetry, and that puppets, just like humans, can come in all shapes and sizes, with different abilities.

With events at Watershed, Tobacco Factory Theatres and the festival’s harbourside HQ Puppet Place, this year’s line-up welcomes artists from all over the globe and reflects how the world has changed since the last festival in 2015.

There’s also a strong ‘something for everyone’ emphasis this year, with free events for the curious who are new to puppetry, workshops for both wannabe and professional puppeteers, and BSL and relaxed events for people with hearing impairments or other additional needs.

Hijinx’s ‘Meet Fred’

Festival highlights include Hijinx’s Meet Fred (Sept 4, pictured above), a 2016 Edinburgh Fringe sell-out hit that contains strong language and – yikes – puppet nudity. Fred is a two-foot-tall cloth puppet fighting prejudice every day: he just wants to be a regular guy, get a job and meet a girl, but when threatened with losing his PLA (Puppetry Living Allowance), Fred’s life begins to spiral out of his control.

Later comes the UK premiere of Tricyckle (Sept 7-8, pictured top) from Canada’s Les Sages Fous. Inspired by the collectors of Trois-Rivières, Quebec, who travel the city on old tricycles in search of junk, Tricyckle breaks the barriers between high culture and folk art. Les Sages Fous recreate a lost world – grotesque and poetic, ritual and mundane, domestic and marvellous – where the mask, the puppet, the object and the human can co-exist.

‘La Causeuse’ from Canada’s Equivoc

On the festival’s final weekend, La Causeuse (The Loveseat, Sept 9-10) from Canada’s Equivoc is a virtuosic piece of physical theatre at the crossroads of dance, mime, physical and object theatre. Without a word, a young woman guides us through darkly comic and poignant dialogues as she revisits the memories of a sordid and doomed romance. As wandering hands seduce and frolic, she dances and wrestles with her inner demons.

Bontehond’s iPET

There’s a strong family strand, too, including A Strange New Space (Sept 3), Tessa Bide’s non-verbal solo show melding physical theatre with stunning puppetry and original music, in which a little girl sets off an imaginary intergalactic trip that mirrors her real- life journey as a refugee, There’s also another UK premiere, this time for iPET (Sept 2, pictured above), in which the performers of Dutch troupe Bontehond create balloon animals and pull bananas out of iPads, just the way it’s supposed to be done. But the magic rebels and one iPad disrupts the entire show. A hilarious non-language show for the youngest audience, with music, magic and movement. Last but most assuredly not least is the return of the Creatures of Bristol Carnival (Sept 2), with its parade of carnival creatures, giant puppets and live music.

Scenes from a previous Creatures of Bristol Carnival

“We are so excited to be inviting incredible artists from around the world to Bristol, to showcase the best of UK and local talent, and to stimulate conversations about puppetry in all its unique guises,” say Festival co-producers Chris Pirie and Rachel McNally. The festival is an opportunity for everyone in Bristol to celebrate our city’s diverse creative offer and for us to reach new communities with our rich programme of live shows, film and free activities.”

Bristol Festival of Puppetry Sept 1-10. For more info, visit www.bristolfestivalofpuppetry.org